Mira Datar Dargah: A Psychiatric Institution

Abstract

The paper describes history and setting of a Muslim institution in Gujarat, which serves mental cases who come from all over India in their search of a cure on a faith healing basis. It includes a sociological description of the functionning of the shrine as well as an ethnographic description of the patients. The main intention of the paper is to explain the symbolic contents and the therapeutic meaning of the rituals applied and their acceptance by the patient who enters the dargah.